It’s been a rough year for everyone, and for those of us who are heavily invested in Bachelor Nation, it’s been a series of bitter disappointments. The last season of The Bachelor starring pilot, Peter Weber, was a huge disappointment and considered to be one of the worst seasons of The Bachelor ever. To add insult to injury, many fans of the television show were actively campaigning for the former contestant, Mike Johnson, to be The Bachelor in 2024. And we got…uh, Peter. More on that later.
After the global outbreak of COVID-19, the three flankers Bachelor shows: The Bachelorette, Bachelor In Paradise, and the new Bachelor Summer Games were all put on ice. Now, The Bachelorette returns to ABC on Tuesday nights, with Clare Crawley starring as The Bachelorette (for now…)
To reminisce about the series, we present the worst Bachelor and Bachelorette stars of all time.
1. Juan Pablo Galavis
The new Bachelorette, Clare Crawley, first appeared on Juan Pablo’s ill-fated Season 18 of The Bachelor. Despite so many contestants over the years, with many more villains to boot, it’s quite remarkable that almost everyone is in total agreement that Juan Pablo is not just the worst Bachelor lead of all-time, he’s also the worst cast member of all time in the series franchise.
Throughout the season, the contestants frequently called out Juan Pablo on his rude behavior. Contestant, Andi Dorfman, broke up with Juan Pablo after spending a night in the fantasy suite together, and she later went on to write of him in her book It’s Not Okay, “He was honest to the point of offensive, entitled to the point of elitism and pompous to the point of disgust.”
Dorfman wasn’t the only one.
Juan Pablo allegedly told Clare Crawley that he didn’t love her, but he loved being intimate with her during the season finale. Crawley shot back “I would never want my children having a father like you,” before storming off set.
Finally, when Juan Pablo chose Nikki Ferrell as his lead, he couldn’t even say he loved her — let alone get down on one knee to propose. Instead, he told Ferrell that “he really liked her.” Needless to say, the couple didn’t last.
2. Peter Weber
Peter Weber was the unfortunate casting choice to lead the last season of The Bachelor, when anyone who’s anyone knows, it should have been Mike. Anyway, that said, Peter’s indecisiveness became the focus of the show. For the first half of the season, Peter couldn’t decide if he was truly over the former Bachelorette, Hannah B, and then once he’d seemingly moved on from Hannah, he was completely stuck when it came time to choose between Madison and Hannah-Ann.
After proposing to Hannah-Ann Sluss, Peter changed his mind, called off the engagement, and half-heartedly pursued Madison Prewett. After that didn’t work out and filming ended, he changed his mind again and started dating former contestant, Kelley Flanigan.
3. Arie Luyendyk Jr.
Arie Luyendyk Jr. was a peculiar choice for a Bachelor lead in Season 22. He didn’t possess any of the typical qualities of a lead star and seemed nervous and awkward throughout the season. His questionable likeability went through the floor during the infamous finale of the season, when, like Peter Weber, he proposed to Becca Kufrin only to change his mind shortly thereafter, and dumped her on national television to pursue a relationship with runner up, Lauren Burnham.
To the credit of the couple, unlike Peter Weber, Lauren and Arie seemed to be a good fit and later married and had a child together.
4. Jed Wyatt
Hannah Brown made a major mistake after choosing Jed Wyatt to be her final choice for her season of The Bachelorette. Despite having great chemistry with Peter Weber and Tyler Cameron, Brown opted for wannabe country music star, Jed Wyatt, despite the big red flags he’d left throughout his season. He had previously confessed to Hannah that he’d only entered the show to advance his music career.
The final nail in the coffin was after the show had aired and it emerged that Jed Wyatt had actually had a girlfriend in Nashville for the entirety of the show’s production, and he’d essentially “ghosted” her after Hannah picked him to be her final selection.
Unfortunately, even off-camera this behavior happens all the time, which is why it’s a good idea to use a background check tool like Instant Checkmate to make sure a suitor is really single — and not a huge lying cheater like Jed!
5. Luke Parker
Luke Parker was a contestant in Hannah Brown’s season of The Bachelorette, and whew, this guy had major issues. Luke consistently bullied all of the other men in the Bachelorette house in order to get more time with Hannah, and even violently tackled another contestant during a rugby match. Luke told Hannah that the nasty tackle was simply “self-defense” even though every other contestant told her that it was clearly foul-play. At that time, Hannah couldn’t see through Luke’s schtick, and he continued to gaslight her and bully other contestants.
Things came to a fiery conclusion after Luke Parker shamed Hannah on the season finale for being intimate with other contestants, and she finally tore into him for his outdated views and sent him home.
6. Corinne Olympios
Corinne Olympios was the Bachelor villain everyone loves to hate! Olympios arrived on Nick Viall’s season of The Bachelor and seemed more interested in avoiding any type of work and taking naps than she did in pursuing the lead. She told all the other contestants that she still had a nanny who did everything for her and came across as the typical “thirsty” villain that the show loves to produce. After getting into various spats with the contestants, Olympios was sent home.
7. Roslyn Papa
Roslyn Papa was catapulted into the Bachelor Hall of Shame after her brief stint in Season 14. Early on in the season, Chris Harrison sent Roslyn Papa packing after he alleged that she’d been having an affair with one of the Bachelor producers. To this day, Papa denies the allegations and has refused to star in any episodes of the Bachelor franchise since, saying the event was all manipulated for ratings.
8. Kelsey Poe
Kelsey Poe was a strange contestant in Season 19 of The Bachelor. After tearfully explaining to Bachelor lead, Sean Lowe, that her former husband had died, cameras cut to an interview of a cheerful Poe saying “Isn’t my story amazing? It’s tragic, but it’s amazing. I love my story!”
